


Why The Sokovia Accords (And Team Iron Man) Are Objectively Wrong

by blue_warbler



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Anti-Sokovia Accords, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Civil War Team Captain America, Essays, Gen, Iron Man-critical, Ultron wasn't Tony's fault don't @ me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:15:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24947491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_warbler/pseuds/blue_warbler
Summary: An essay analyzing the Sokovia Accords and their many, many legal and practical problems.
Comments: 16
Kudos: 82





	Why The Sokovia Accords (And Team Iron Man) Are Objectively Wrong

All right bitches, let me sit you down and tell you why Team Iron Man is wrong about basically everything.

**Part 1: The Accords Are Unconstitutional**

To prove this, let’s look at the Sokovia Accords, the things that Team Iron Man want pushed through.I’m gonna work with the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights in particular to see how these measure up.The actual Accords are roughly the size of a phone book and are presumably made of extremely dense legalese (the fact that these were presented to the Avengers three days before they had to sign them is an issue I’ll address later) and the writers ain’t writing that shit (and I ain’t reading that shit) so I’ll work with what we have, based on the MCU wiki.

  * Any enhanced individuals who agree to sing must register with the United Nations and provide biometric data such as fingerprints and DNA samples.
    * Those with secret identities must reveal their legal names and true identities to the United Nations.
    * Those with innate powers must submit to a power analysis, which will categorize their threat level and determine potential health risks.
    * Those with innate powers must also wear tracking bracelets at all times.



The “secret identities” part is a clear First Amendment violation, because “free speech” also means that you can never be forced to say anything, either.The “power analysis” part is a violation of the right to privacy.Most egregious, in this first part, is the “tracking bracelets” part, because I don’t see anything about warrants in that and having powers does not mean “probable cause,” making this a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

One note in and we’ve already violated two different constitutional amendments.Off to a good start.

  * Any enhanced individuals who sign are prohibited from taking action in any country other than their own unless they are first given clearance by either that country's government or by a United Nations subcommittee.
    * Governments are forbidden from deploying enhanced individuals outside of their own national borders unless those individuals are given clearance as described above. The same rule also applies to non-government organizations that operate on a global scale.



This one’s less obvious, but it still has its own practical problems, which will be detailed below.Still, the legal problem here is the phrase “taking action.”What does that mean?If it means an enhanced individual can’t exit their country (which it _will_ be interpreted as whenever convenient), that’s a violation of freedom of movement, which was considered so fundamental that it wasn’t even enumerated in the Constitution.The Ninth Amendment clearly states that rights not enumerated in the Constitution are still rights.

  * Any enhanced individuals who do not sign will not be allowed to take part in any police, military, or espionage activities, or to otherwise participate in any national or international conflict, even in their own country.
    * As a corollary, they will not be allowed to participate in any active missions undertaken by private or governmental law enforcement/military/intelligence organizations (such as S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers).



This one’s less problematic, though it does add another restriction on what an “enhanced individual” can and can’t do as an individual.

  * Any enhanced individuals who use their powers to break the law (including those who take part in extralegal vigilante activities), or are otherwise deemed to be a threat to the safety of the general public, may be detained indefinitely without trial.
    * If an enhanced individual violates the Accords, or obstructs the actions of those enforcing the Accords, they may likewise be arrested and detained indefinitely without trial.



This one is practically tailor-made to violate the Constitution. _Nobody_ can be detained indefinitely without trial, no matter what laws they break, because that’s a violation of the Sixth Amendment.And what about that “deemed to be a threat to the safety of the general public” part?How long do you think it’ll be before someone interprets that to mean “existing with powers?”This basically means all enhanced individuals, regardless of whether or not they have actually committed a crime, can be arrested and imprisoned at the whims of the government.

In short, the various provisions of the Sokovia Accords violate constitutional rights at every turn, and would never be ratified by the Senate.

**Part 2: The Accords Are Ineffective**

No less than 117 countries signed the Accords.That’s a lot of countries.The fun thing there is that the more people involved in this “oversight committee” the slower things will happen.Bureaucracy moves slowly, and when there’s 117 countries involved it’ll make _continental drift_ look fast.In every instance where the Avengers were deployed, they needed to respond to an immediate threat within _hours or minutes_.The UN typically takes _months_ to get to a resolution and send forces, and even the “rapid deployment” UN troops take several days to get approvied.By the time the Avengers would be given permission to go into Sokovia and beat Ultron, he’d already have killed all life on Earth.

What’s more, what about the have-nots?117 countries seems like a lot, and it is, but the UN is composed of _193_ countries, and there are 54 countries that are not part of the UN.There are more countries who _didn’t_ sign the Accords than did.That’s gonna cause problems later on.

And how about Thor?Thor is quite literally a head of state of a foreign nation who has not signed the Accords and is not a part of the United Nations.In fact, by the definitions given in the Accords, every single Asgardian would be considered an “enhanced individual” an be subject to authoritarian restrictions.That would be a diplomatic disaster and would lead to seriously frosty relations between Earth and Asgard.

In short, the Accords are entirely impractical and would cause massive political problems down the line.

**Part 3: The Accords Are A Power Play**

Let’s look at the supposed reasons these things were signed.

  1. The Avengers don’t have government oversight.
  2. The Avengers cause collateral damage.



Firstly, the Avengers do have government oversight.As a team, they were put together by SHIELD and have never performed a mission without SHIELD giving them logistical and material support.The second one is far worse, though.

The Avengers cause collateral damage?Yeah, and so does every single organization in the world, and they would have managed it far less well than the Avengers did.That explosion in Lagos?Yeah, it killed 26 people.It would’ve killed a lot more people if it’d happened on the ground, surrounded by even more civilians.If the Avengers hadn’t been there a terrorist group would’ve gotten a bioweapon — an actual WMD — with potential casualties in the thousands _at least_.Those helicarriers in DC?They caused destruction, but not a whole lot considering three aircraft carriers fell out of the sky, and it was mostly limited to government property with minimal civilian casualties.If those helicarriers were allowed to continue the casualties would’ve been in the _millions_.Ultron?Tony wasn’t even responsible for that; Ultron literally wrote itself into existence from the Mind Stone over the course of roughly an hour and went Skynet in about a minute.All without Tony actually doing much.And considering the potential casualties of that one included _all life on Earth_ , there being as few casualties as there were is frankly miraculous.

But how about the government in the MCU?What’s their track record for collateral damage?Well, in the invasion of New York City their first response was to try to _NUKE THE CITY_ while the battle was still undecided.I sincerely hope I don’t need to tell you why you shouldn’t trust the government with these things.

What’s more, let's not forget who would supposedly have control of the Avenger's leash and the power to enlist any superhuman (also a violation of the 13th amendment banning involuntary servitude): bureaucrats and politicians. How long ago was the incident that exposed Hydra, again? An organization that not only controlled nearly the entirety of SHIELD but had also infiltrated the highest positions of power and governments worldwide for decades. Do you really think they got them all, Thunderbolt Ross? And now you want to hand that kind of power over to the same corrupt, compromised politicians?

And that’s not even mentioning the various non-Hydra secret societies and conspiracies out there, like the Hand or that one time the Vice President worked with Aldritch Killian to try to kill the President in Iron Man 3.

Let’s also look back on the Accords themselves and how they’re pressed on the Avengers.Like I said, the Accords themselves are roughly the size of a phone book.This thing was plunked down in front of them and they were told that they had three days before they either had to sign or get fucked.I don’t care what kind of legal team you have, three days is nowhere near enough to understand a document of that density.That’s effectively coercion. 

In addition, the other methods used to force them to sign, like guilt-tripping and dehumanizing language (General Ross compares Banner, a military researcher whom _he (Ross) made into the Hulk_ and Thor, a _foreign head of state_ who neither he nor anyone else on Earth has authority over, to nuclear weapons).This is nothing short of a blatant power play on the part of the world governments.

And Tony decided to defend this.Because he’d been guilt-tripped into thinking he was responsible for collateral damage. Which he wasn't.


End file.
